November 30, 2015 Citizenship Judge Albert Wong, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, 200 Town Centre Court, Suite 370, Scarborough, on M1P 4X8

November 30, 2015 Citizenship Judge Albert Wong, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, 200 Town Centre Court, Suite 370, Scarborough, ON M1P 4X8

Dear Citizenship Judge Albert Wong,

In speciﬁc reference to the Citizenship Oath, the Court of Appeal for Ontario, in its decision against my co-applicants and myself (McAteer v. Canada, 2014 ONCA 578, paragraph 761), had written

“. . . the appellants have the opportunity to publicly disavow what they consider to be the message conveyed by the oath. . . . ”

As explicitly suggested by the Court, I hereby completely disavow whatever I thought the ﬁrst 25 words of the Citizenship Oath conveyed when I took the oath earlier today. In lieu of a further explanation I attach a copy of the letter I sent you prior to this ceremony. I ﬁnd it regrettable that I have to do this; I have done my best to avoid it. In my mind, oaths are not meant to be disavowed. But I must have misunderstood something about what oaths mean in Canada, and the courts have put me right. There are many other residents of Canada who are refraining from taking Canadian citizenship, or are taking it with great discomfort, or have taken it with great discomfort, only because of the monarchy part of the oath. A part of the purpose of this letter and a part of the purpose of making it public is to make it widely known that a partial resolution, suggested by the courts, is to take the oath and immediately disavow its meaning. I will maintain a web site, http://disavowal.ca, containing the story of this disavowal and of past ones, and encouraging others to share their disavowal stories. Canada stands to gain if this will open the road for more of its residents to take citizenship with less discomfort.

Sincerely,

Dror Bar-Natan, Toronto, November 2015.

CC: The Honourable John McCallum, P.C., M.P., Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizen- ship; The Honourable Jody Wilson-Raybould, P.C., M.P., Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada; some press.

1see http://www.ontariocourts.ca/decisions/2014/2014ONCA0578.htm. This is a COPY November 13, 2015 Citizenship Judge Albert Wong, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, 200 Town Centre Court, Suite 370, Scarborough, ON M1P 4X8

Dear Citizenship Judge Albert Wong,

This is to let you know that immediately after my citizenship ceremony on November 30, 2015, I will be following the advice of Weiler J.A., Lauwers J.A., and Pardu J.A., in their ruling on McAteer v. Canada against my co-appellants and myself, 2014 ONCA 578, paragraph 761:

“. . . the appellants have the opportunity to publicly disavow what they consider to be the message conveyed by the oath. . . . ”

As a further explanation, allow me to quote from my own September 2012 aﬃdavit to the court in this matter2:

I find the phrase “I affirm that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, Her Heirs and Successors” repulsive. To me, it states that some people, the royals and their heirs, are born with privilege. It is a historic remnant of a time we all believe has passed, in which the children of peasants could be nothing but peasants, and in which aristocracy existed as a closed club. I appreciate that the monarchy in Canada is mostly symbolic (I could not live here had it been anything more). Yet it is precisely the wrong symbol: a symbol that we aren’t all equal and that some of us have to bow to others for reasons of ancestry alone. . . . I feel that the requirement of taking the (first half of) the oath is tantamount to hazing. To be initiated as a Canadian, I am required to participate in an initiation ritual that I find disturbing and humiliating. It is a ritual that has no practical meaning and only carries what I regard as a repugnant symbolic meaning. Moreover, it is a ritual that born-Canadians are not subject to. . . . I feel there is much value in becoming a Canadian citizen. Should this Application be dismissed and possible subsequent appeals be denied, I will likely hold my nose and shut my eyes, surrender to some hazing and unhappily take the oath of citizenship in contradiction to my conscientious beliefs as indicated above.

Sincerely,

Dror Bar-Natan, CIC Client ID 51976833.

1see http://www.ontariocourts.ca/decisions/2014/2014ONCA0578.htm. 2see http://drorbn.net/AcademicPensieve/Projects/Citizenship/BAR-NATAN_Affidavit.pdf.